glandvsgluedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gland is a noun, glued is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gland” is a noun and “glued” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,620
“gland” frequency rank
#16,926
“glued” frequency rank
34546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gland glued
Definition A specialized cell, group of cells, or organ of endothelial origin in the human or animal body that synthesizes a chemical substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). simple past and past participle of glue

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set gland and glued apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
gland
5 ch
glued

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gland is /ɡlænd/ while glued is /ɡluːd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gland is recorded at frequency rank #17,620, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡlænd/. glued is at rank #16,926, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡluːd/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 34546, this pair ranks #319,885 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gland vs glued

Shared letters: dgl. Private to "gland": an. Private to "glued": eu.

"gland" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "glued" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • glandgalnd · ggland · gladn · glandd · glannd · glland · glnad · lgand
  • gluedgglued · gleud · gllued · glude · gluedd · guled · lgued

Frequency comparison

gland#17,620
glued#16,926

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gland" and "glued" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gland" is a noun and "glued" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gland" or "glued"?
"glued" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,926 in our English list, against #17,620 for "gland". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering gland vs glued

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “gland”; for a verb, it's “glued”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “gland” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list